He was transferred to an open ward at University Hospital, before being discharged a few days later.

The former Chrysler worker spent his final months sharing memories with his family and even took communion from a visiting priest.

Bill said: “They were valuable, enjoyable experiences. We squeezed all we could from that time.”

He said he struggled to see how withholding water did not meet the dictionary definition of euthanasia and has called for an ethical debate on the issue.

A spokesman for University Hospital said it was not always easy to tell whether someone was very close to death, but a collaborative decision was made by a senior doctor and other staff such as nurses.

He said patients often spent three to five days on the pathway, but sometimes longer.

If patients or their families objected the pathway was not used, but that rarely happened, he said.

* A LEADING expert in care for the elderly insists ‘end of life’ pathways do work – if they are used properly.

Professor Ian Philp is currently medical director at South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, but was previously the government’s tsar for older people’s care and helped to roll out the end of life pathways.

Those programmes have come under increasing scrunity from the national media in recent weeks.

Prof Philp said: “The bad press generally focuses on cases when the pathway isn’t used properly. I believe if the pathway is used properly it is a major advance.”

Thousands of patients over the age of 80 are admitted to hospital every year. One in five die.

Prof Philp said end of life pathways attempted to learn lessons from cancer care and apply those to other patients.

Much of the controversy centres on cases where food and water have been withheld, sometimes without patients or their families being told.

Nourishment is normally stopped in cases where organ failure means the body can no longer regulate the water and salt levels in the blood, meaning death is imminent.

Prof Philp said the decision should always be discussed with the patient or their family and should be reviewed on a daily basis in case they made a ‘miraculous’ recovery.

Last week health minister Norman Lamb demanded relatives be told before food and water was withdrawn.

Prof Philp said his NHS trust were already reviewing all aspects of end of life care, including pathways.